Muji Huts by Jasper Morrison, Naoto Fukasawa and Konstantin Grcic

For Tokyo Design Week 2015, Japanese retailer Muji invited renowned designers Jasper Morrison, Naoto Fukasawa and Konstantin Grcic to envision minimal prefabricated dwellings to escape the hustle and bustle of urban life. The huts each explore a different material: a cork hut by Morrison, a wooden hut by Fukasawa and aluminium by Grcic.

Photography: Designboom

Morrison, Fukasawa and Grcic capture Muji’s minimalist design philosophy in their three modest prefabricated huts, removing complexity from the building process using the minimum space and materials required to create a rich experience.

“Whenever I think about going to the country for the weekend, I start imagining a small house with everything needed for a short stay: a place to cook, a place to eat, a place to wash, and a place to sleep. The dream usually collapses when I think of the complexity of building a new house, but with this project I realized there was a chance to design such a house as a product rather than a one-off,” Morrison said.

Japanese product designer Naoto Fukasawa’s wooden hut features floor to ceiling sliding glass panels inviting natural light into the space. The compact rectangular hut features dark timber cladding and a corrugated roof. The open plan design includes a wood-burning stove to heat the interior, which is furnished with a cot, dining table and chairs, small kitchen and an enclosed timber-panelled space containing a large square bath.

“There’s a certain charm when you hear the word ‘hut’. Not quite a holiday house, yet not as simple as going camping. If there is a small hut, there is a feeling that one could slip into nature anytime. I thought that living small in the smallest of structures is a Muji kind of living,” Fukasawa said.

German designer Konstantin Grcic designed a narrow two-story aluminum hut measuring just 3 x 3.3 x 4.5 metres. The hut’s interior is clad with plywood panels and features a sleeping loft, lamp, outlets and a ladder to reach the mezzanine, offering flexibility in how the space is used. Although it doesn’t include a kitchen or bathroom the compact design doesn’t require a building permit in Japan.

“My Muji hut represents an enclosed space which is small enough to stay within the norm of constructions which need no building permission in Japan. Being a rigid and self-supportive structure it can be placed in any terrain and environment,” Grcic said.

Each of the prefabricated Muji hys will be available to purchase in 2017 with prices ranging from $25,000 – $40,00 USD. The huts will go on sale in Japan next year